With the Olympics coming to a close, Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Downey offered some final observations of the Beijing Games:

On Shaquille O'Neal: My buddy found a 50-foot statue of Shaq in a Beijing park. I hear it is remarkably lifelike. It can't shoot, it can't rap and it can't act.

On Matt Emmons: The most helpless man with a gun since Barney Fife. I joke that the Chinese name for him is Wrong Way. He is the U.S. rifleman who is not good to the last shot. He blew surefire (literally) medals in 2004 and 2008 both on his last aim-and-fire. This guy ought to come with a two-minute warning. He eyes a target in Beijing, pulls a trigger and a window breaks in Tibet.

On He Kexin: A girl named He. Oh, what Johnny Cash could have done with that! He is a she, a wee Chinese gymnast, 4 feet 8 inches low, 73 pounds. I think my left leg alone weighs 73 pounds. How I wish China's softball team had pulled a Bill Veeck and sent He up to bat. Let's see Jennie Finch hit her strike zone. He Kexin, the Human Intentional Walk.

On Carolina Colorado: I called her the woman one-25th of America was cheering for here. She swam for Colombia. I like the way it trickled off the tongue, Colombia's Carolina Colorado. I wonder which other Olympians come from there – Georgia Arizona? Virginia Montana?

POLITICAL STATEMENT

The U.S. Olympic team has chosen archer Khatuna Lorig, who was born in what is now the country of Georgia, to be the U.S. flag bearer in Closing Ceremonies.

With Georgia recently fighting against Russian troops in the separatist Georgian province of South Ossetia, many saw Lorig's selection as a show of support by U.S. athletes for the besieged Georgians.

Lorig, however – who trains at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista – played down the politics.

“It's more that they feel that I'm American, it doesn't matter where I was born,” the 34-year-old said. “I'm truly very proud to be an American and most definitely very proud to be on the U.S. team. . I love this country. It's the No 1 country in the world, and I'm holding its flag.”

LOST IN TRANSLATION

From Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer:

“I saw one of those 10-person golf cart shuttles hauling people around Friday. But this one had some problems. The sign on the front of the cart said: 'The elderly, sick, disabled and pregnant vehicle.'

“Wow. It was elderly, sick, disabled AND pregnant? What was it doing on the road?”

POOL SHOTS

American synchronized swimmer Andrea Nott knows people rip her sport. And she remembers a “Saturday Night Live” routine making fun of it.

“That was more than 20 years ago and people still say, 'Hey, I saw the 'Saturday Night Live' skit,' ” she says.

Her response: “If some people think it's dorky, well, they don't have to watch it.”

BY THE NUMBERS

209 million: Record number of TV viewers for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

208.7 million: Viewers through Friday's telecast of these Beijing Games.